1756 - Oscar Wilde opens in a play for which he did not memorize his lines. He improvs the whole play, to everyone's amazement. This dialogue was the basis for Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Ernest'. It also lead the consequent discovery of cheese.

1968 - Two Runners have their gold medals taken away in the Mexico City Olympics because they had their lines memorized

1975 - American troops in Vietnam forget their lines. The A team were wrongly accused of this. They promptly escaped using a combination of Bill Clintons cigars, a cabbage launcher and Mr T's pity. The rest is history.